A Harrogate taxi driver who killed his love rival in a quiet country lane ‘lost control’, his defence barrister said in court.

The jury were told today that Oktay Kilic, 40, of Kent Drive in Harrogate lost control when he stabbed Knaresborough man Mark Berney, 44, in frenzied attack on August 3, 2014.

Oktay Kilic

John McDermott QC said: “Many of you may have been wondering ‘what on earth is his defence?’”

Mr McDermott said that Kilic lost control when triggered by Mr Berney shouting ‘She doesn’t want you any more,’ after Kilic tracked his wife, Harrogate solicitor Kathleen Kilic, to a roadside tryst with Mr Berney.

In his closing statement Mr McDermott said: “He must not have known what he did with the knife because he was not the master of his own mind.

“The defendant challenges the idea that he wanted to harm him seriously but that Mr Berney’s cheek and insult led him to do so.”

He added: “It is not as straight forward as the prosecution say.”

The court has heard that Kilic stabbed Mr Berney 33 times with a six inch kitchen knife, causing catastrophic injuries.

The prosecution insisted that this was a clear case of murder and that Kilic saw his wife as ‘his property, his possession.’

Mr Cox added: “There can be no doubt that the defendant had intention to kill or cause serious harm to him.

“He knew exactly what he was doing there can be no doubt. There was no loss of control, this was an act of revenge.”

Kilic took his two children, aged four and six, with him in the car to Whipley Lane near Ripley, after he tracked his wife’s car to the layby.

Prosecuting Mr Cox said: “He was so angry that he loaded the car with the children and he set off with them in the car, this is a measure of how angry he was that he needed to act so quickly. He didn’t even have time to take the children to Kate’s mother’s house, he had to get there straight away before the car disappeared.

“The defendant says he wouldn’t take the children there, well a reasonable person wouldn’t, but he wasn’t reasonable.”

However, Mr McDermott said this shows that Kilic did not plan the killing.

He said: “If he did take the knife and he did plan to do it, why did he take the children, it goes against everything we have heard about him as a father. If he had known that he was going to do what he ended up doing he would have dropped the children at his mother-in-law’s, she lives three minutes away.”